Sunday, December 15, 2013

I’ve moved 22 times since
leaving my parents’ home at the age of 19. More than one friend has remarked on
my restlessness, but I never thought of it that way. It just took me a long
time to find a place that felt like home. But I’m here now, in a tiny jewel box
of a renovated farmhouse called Four Oaks, freezing my ass off on the front
porch so I can look at the outlines of the Blue Ridge Mountains while I write
about moving to the country.

I might be the most unlikely person to
move to the country. Of my 22 homes, 21 were in suburbs or towns or—most
recently—in the heart of Washington, D.C. I like knowing people are within
screaming distance if something goes horribly wrong. I’ve stopped at enough
tiny towns off the interstates in West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky to know
that some country people can be scary as shit. I’m terrified of mountain lions,
which, in case you don’t know, are freakin’ everywhere, people. And
I am afraid of the dark.

But I’d had enough of living in the city
and I couldn’t face another suburb. Then one Sunday afternoon, heading to an
open house suggested by my real estate agent, I drove down a gravel road
thinking yeah right, and happened upon Four Oaks. Walked through
the front door and felt it as viscerally as I’d ever felt anything: this place
was home, and I had to have it.

A month later, Four Oaks was mine:
the hundred year-old heart pine floors, the big front porch with the
tongue-in-groove ceiling, the metal roof, the tight trim work, the finishes
that make the home’s modern comforts feel rustic and authentic. Also mine: the
scary cellar, the itty-bitty closets, a half acre of dust where a lawn needed
to be, and a plethora of snakes, spiders and stink bugs. Shrieks in the dark I
can’t identify—maybe a birdlike thing, maybe a catlike thing. Maybe a ghost.
Who knows?

Who cares? Not me. I’m
cozy here. Neighbors go by on horses, on bikes, and in cars; they stop and
introduce themselves and welcome me to the neighborhood. I go to the spaghetti
dinner hosted by the local volunteer fire department. One morning, as I stepped
onto my front porch with my first cup of coffee, I found four fat turkeys in my
yard. “They were on your porch earlier,” my neighbor called to me across
the gravel road.

The other day, her
youngest daughter, 10 year-old McKenzie, saw me out on the porch and came over
for a talk. She asked my permission to ride her bike on my long driveway. She
told me about a scary movie she’d seen. She said her favorite subject in school
was geography, because it was interesting to learn about people in different
lands. “People have different minds inside their heads,” she informed me.

After 22 moves, I guess I
must like geography the best, too. And I’m learning that sometimes a different
mind finds its way inside the same old head you’ve always had. Who knew?

In place of that old
restlessness, I’m content here at Four Oaks. That might seem bland to you, but
it’s a thrill to me. Because I think this might be how it feels when you’ve
finally found your way home.

Friday, November 15, 2013

These fine turkeys came to call one November morning when they flew the coop and went exploring. We were formally introduced later, when I stopped to buy eggs from the neighbors who were raising them. Their names are Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's and Easter. Good luck with that, fellows.